THE OAMARU MURDER CASE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2573, 6 July 1882, Page 3

THE OAMARU MURDER CASE.

[BT TBIiKORAPH.] ADDITIONAL PABTICtriABB. OAMARU, July 6. Finding it impossible to get any information through the police in referonoe to the alleged murder nsar Papakaio, the " Mail" yesterday gent a Bpeoial reportor to the ciotriefc to make inquiries, the result being that the following information was obtained : Alexander Beattie and Sarah Adams, the murdered woman, who was also known as Adamson, came to the distriofc between six and seven yean ago from Southbridge, in Canterbury. Beattie entered into business, but failed, and then took employment on the farm of Hall Bros., near Georgetown, where .Beatlie and the woman lived for three or four years. Both were addicted to drink, and frequently quarrelled. When in liquor, about nine weska ago, they took a small cottage in a lonely gully near Peebles, and within about 120 yards from the spot where the body was found. , Beattie, about five weeks ago, who was still working at G-corgetown, returned home unexpectedly en a Saturday night, and not ! finding his paramour at home, went to the house of a man named Barney Carroll, about half-a-mile away. Here Beattie found the , pair drinking together A. scene ensued, during which Beattie ill-treated the woman, , and threatened the life of Carroll. Carroll l--iid an information against Bsattie, who two days afterwards was fined and bound over to . keep the peaoe. Beattie then returned to work at "Georgetown, and, so far aa is known, did not again visit his paramour at | Peebles. The Sunday following the woman went up to G-Jorgetorn, apparently to heal J the breach, but Beattie declined to have any- ' thing more to do with her, saying, " She was a rotten-hearted woman." She was drivan home late at night by a farmer, and the day following disappeared. Beattie afterwards stated that ho had made a thorough search , for her, and that ho believed she had gone , off with a pedlar named Chrjstsl, who was " in the district. The woman had made no friends in the district, owing to her drinking ■ habits, and tho people accepting Seattle's ? statement that the woman had gone 5 away as very probable, did not make any search. Nothing mora it seems f has beon heard of the matter until about a fortnight ago, and about a fortnight e after the woman's disappaarance, when Beattie reported the matter to the police. ( . No search seems to have been made by them, and it was by the merest ohonce that the ) body was found on Sunday morning. The place where the body was found was near an e abandoned ooal pit, up a gully, over half a mile from the nearest habitation, a place ? seldom visited by anyone. On Sunday morning, while looking for a horoe which had strayed, a man earned Warwood, in crossing the creek, discovered the body, which wis % lying almost in the centre of the cree'k, and c with the exception of tho feet and one ■ shoulder, was covered by 7in. or Bin. of sand. * Information was sent to town to the 8 police, and some time afterwards the body was removed. So far as can be l asoertaired the body seems to have been * lying on the back, both feet olose together, a and one arm held out in front of the face, as I if in the act of warding ofE a blow. Her hair was dishevelled, and her dress partly off her J body. Bound her throat a handkerchief was * tiod pretty tightly. It is stated that on tho elbow of the arm held in front of the face ' was a wound, and that there were three or I four wounds on the head, and that her throat c was cut in two places ; but upon these points ' no thoroughly reliable information can be c obtained, as the doctor who made the post l mortem examination declines to give any * particulars. It is also stated that the \ police have found several things stained with blood, amongst them being a Bmall bar of iron ; but the police will c not say whether or not this is correct. * As telegraphed yesterday, Beattie has boon c arrested, and charged with tho murder, but the " Mail V reporter did not obtain any in- ' formation tending to couneot him with the 3 woman's death. They were not, so far as - could be ascertained, seen together after the night previous to the woman's disappearance, ' when Beattie deolined to return homo with ' her. The supposition that a murder has been committed seems well grounded, and the ! police appear fully satisfied upon that point. ' What evidence thoy have to ocnneot Beattie ' with too crims is not known, but that the oiurcUr was not committed for purposes of robbery is shown by tho facts that the body when found still had on a brooch, I rings, &j., while nothing in the cottage olojo by had apparently boen disturbed. .Mr Hall, ono of Beattio's employers, states that, to his knowledge, Beattie did not leave the farm near Georgetown, several miles distant from tho piaoe whera tha body was found, from the time he re- , turned after the law cass until four o'clock in the afternoon of Saturday after the wonv.sn was said to have disappeared. The woman is said to have been a daughter of a doctor in Armagh County, Ireland, and that she was the wife o? a lawyer of the same plaoe, but this statement, which, was frequently made by Beattie when in liquor, is discredited. She was apparently a well educated woman, who had beou brought up well, and who always dressed remarkably well, but, as already stated, she waß addicted to drink, and made few or no fiieads in tho district. Tho body wa3 buried yesterday at Bapakaio," without the slightest ceremony, the only persons present being Constable Sexton and a local publican, who dr«vo the horse and cart oonveying the body to the grave. Tho Coroner's inquest will be resumed at Papakaio on Monday, at one o'clock. It ie Said that about twenty witnesses will be examined. ____________^_